Who is The Happy Book Lady?
Tessa Cobb is a children's author, illustrator and all round happy person, represented by Jessica Hare at The Agency.
Tessa makes children's books about choosing happiness, and just completed her MA in Children's Book Illustration at The Cambridge School of Art.
Tessa also teaches publishing part time at Bath Spa University. She delivers lectures on other creative university courses about funding your creative practice, and is a Creative Mentor at the EMERGE graduate studio.
Experience
MA Children's Book Illustration, Cambridge School of Art, ARU, 2024
Technical Tutor BA Publishing & Journalism Bath Spa University, 2022 - present;
Guest lecturer MA Publishing, UAL, 2024;
Guest lecturer Creative Arts Practice BA Bath Spa 2023;
Bath Children's Literature Festival 2022-2023;
Creative Mentor EMERGE Studio Bath Spa University 2020 - present
Associate at The Studio creative technology hub, 2024
Tessa's children's book illustration
Tessa works with monoprint and mixed media to create joyful illustrations that focus on colour and texture.
Tessa's illustration work is playful and experimental and she loves making a mess. She's a very Happy Lady when she's outside drawing from life, or in the print room with inky fingers.
Take a peek at The Happy Book Lady's illustration process and exciting new work in development over on Instagram.
Awards and exhibitions
DPictus Unpublished Picturebook Showcase 5, 2024
Moongazers and Starfinders, Royal Commonwealth Society Exhibition, 44AD gallery, Bath, 2024
Bath Contemporary Art Fair, 2024
WECA Creative Sector Growth Programme 2022
Runner - up Stratford Salaria Picture Book Prize 2021
WECA Creative Freelancers Award 2021
Arts Council England DYCP 2001
Network For Creative Enterprise 2018 - 2019
Exhibition 'Ways of Working' Knowle West Media Centre 2019
Tessa's Happy Books
Each time Tessa faces a big challenge to her happiness, she makes a book about it. Read about the story behind each story on the blog.
Choosing to be happy no matter what life throws at her is an art that Tessa is proud to be cultivating, and she would love to share it with you.
Titles
Geoffrey Finds a Bike - Published Autumn 2021
The Girl Who Walked to the Moon - Published 2020
Squirrel and the Three Bears - Published 2019
